The Internet has rapidly changed the way people are starting to communicate and the Internet Service Provider has given rise to a rapidly growing service industry. The legacy post office mail and telephone system communication methods are rapidly being replaced by e-mail communication. The reason is simple; e-mail is both more convenient and less expensive than legacy mail and/or long distance charges. This is especially true for other country mail delivery or legacy telephone service. Before long, the facsimile machine will hardly be recognizable in its present form (see co-pending MIMS invention Serial No. 60/114,594). Even new telephones, and software operated on ISP platforms designed to use the Internet to reduce long distance charges are becoming more user friendly even though they are far from practical. However all of these new Internet communication systems still keep the e-mail address separate from the telephone numbers created by the legacy telephone companies. That is, many business cards now have to carry the telephone number, facsimile number, and e-mail address, pager number and even a 1-800 number to provide basic communication information to the recipient. At the same time, the communication bandwidth infrastructure such as, fiber optics cables, low orbit satellites, digital cellular telephones, and DSP is allowing the legacy telephone numbering system to grow at a rate it never anticipated. Some cities such as Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, etc., have had to add new area codes over old area codes causing many customers to have different area codes at the same location. It is predicted that this situation will only get worse as more and more machines require their own telephone connection. In short, a more modern communication system is needed that has unlimited growth and is consistent with the new Internet Protocol systems. This invention describes such a system and will allow communication connection information in the future to use alpha-numeric strings which are easily understood by everybody all over the world and relate to all of the connection devices that an individual or business needs.
The new telephone system described herein uses and combines the basic infrastructure and methods of existing legacy telephone systems, pager systems, and e-mail systems. The new system refers to one key subsystem element as an E-phone (EP) to distinguish it from the legacy telephones and the other key subsystem element as a Client Service Provider Unit (CSPU) to distinguish it from the existing legacy telephone service systems. The CSP system can use both regular telephone and pager numbers to connect to another person or machine and it can use e-mail addresses to connect to another person or machine. However each EP has at least one e-mail address associated with it that has been verified as unique by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP could also be your local telephone company. Any person can then contact you using your e-mail address from their EP, computer, or web television and/or for many years in the future contact you using your old legacy telephone or pager numbers. Thus the preferred embodiment of the EP/CSP invention allows graceful and convenient conversion into the information age using a new alphanumeric system to replace the legacy numeric systems. Equally important the new system allows a seamless conversion to a universal worldwide xe2x80x9calpha-numericxe2x80x9d system that each country can use to eventually phase out their existing limited xe2x80x9carea codexe2x80x9d numbering system. That is, there will be no need for country codes once the EP/CSP system is in full operation. An early inconvenience for those not used to computers and keyboards, is the need for dialing alpha-numeric e-mail addresses rather than just numeric numbers. However the change to the mandatory ten numbers dialing system is conditioning most people for change already. Also, most of the new digital telephones allow individuals to store up to several hundred telephone numbers for automatic dialing so such an inconvenience will be more than offset by not having to remember separate facsimile, telephone, and e-mail information for the same person or company. For example, the EP/CSP system allows a person to have a single e-mail number for the telephone, and by adding xe2x80x9c/Fxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c/Mxe2x80x9d, or other suitable codes, at the end of the e-mail number, one can call the same person""s facsimile or computer modem. Thus only one alphanumeric string is required on the business card or letterhead. Also, if you are in a company and have an extension you just add xe2x80x9c/xxxxe2x80x9d for the extension number. With this example you can quickly see that the new system will provide unlimited telephone capacity and eliminate the need for having separate 1-800, facsimile, e-mail, telephone, and pager directories which must be constantly updated. In fact the new system will automatically search for all five numbers each time you call and if the individual does not have the one you called it will tell you the individual does not have that service (e.g. 1-800 service). All the caller has to do is add xe2x80x9c/xxxxe2x80x9d for the desired service. For example, if one computer is calling another computer then the computer software will automatically add xe2x80x9c/Mxe2x80x9d at the end of the e-mail number and the CSP will connect the caller to the computer line rather than the voice or facsimile line. The new system is also suited for the conversion to line sharing systems such as the one recently announced by Sprint. This is because the EP/CSP subsystem elements automatically listen for their coded address before allowing a connection to be made or a function delivered. This is part of the Internet protocol features that are incorporated into the EP/CSP system design. That is, the EP telephone will work with both dedicated lines systems and network systems such as WWW, the company Intranet or Extranet. Thus the EP/CSP system design truly anticipates and combines the various types of communication styles used today and foreseen in the 21st century. At the same time, it provides an alpha-numeric numbering system that would allow the individual or community to grow with out worrying about the CSP running out of telephone numbers just because more lines (actually, more connections) were needed. At the time of this invention there is estimated to be several hundred million unique e-mail addresses worldwide, and the number is growing at a rate of several 100,000 per day. To change our legacy telephone systems over to a method that takes advantage of the unique e-mail alphanumeric strings that are being created at very low cost would allow all types of communication systems to grow in an unlimited and less costly manner in the future. In other words, it just makes good sense and provides many opportunities for the telephone companies to get into the Internet service business and for telephone companies to offer Internet services. Services such as direct connect and Internet connect at two different rates (e.g., in FIG. 1 have direct connect over line 25 at one rate and Internet connect over line 26 at a lower rate).